Remembrance
by Allura99
Summary: A visitor returns to Arus after spending years away from there.


Remembrance  
  
[All standard disclaimers apply.]  
  
  
  
The soft moonlight bathed the surrounding landscape in ethereal silver light. It had been years since he had left this place, and it had taken years and a promise to bring him back. Pausing to get his bearings, he turned to his right and started walking.  
  
So much had changed during his absence. You wouldn't have known the place. Yet, he did. This place had been his home, a spot of love and laughter, despite the battles and the scars.  
  
Oh, the scars. The cool night air made his joints ached. He wasn't an old man, barely thirty. Yet, the years of fighting had taken their toll on his body. But there were deeper scars.  
  
He cursed under his breath as he nearly tripped on a large stone. Looking back, he realized the rock was really marble. It too was a scar, marring the green grass with the remembrance of a time long ago.  
  
Memories were funny things. The past few years were a blur. He couldn't recall where he had been at certain times in the years of his wandering. One place blended into another. Nothing stood out, except for the memories.  
  
He would wake up in the middle of the night, his head filled with visions of sunlight and flowers, of laughter and friends. Yet, before he could process the fragments, the memories would fade away. Only in his dreams was he truly happy, and only there did he truly remember.  
  
Now, he was submerge in the past. The fragments slowly came together, forming a tapestry of his past. Faces began to take on unique features and names. Places now had some vague meaning in his mind.  
  
"I'm here," he whispered to himself. "I'm here."  
  
He saw a vision of a blonde woman in his arms. He knew she was dying, but he didn't why she was dying or how he knew. He just knew. In his arms, she smiled and reached up to his face.  
  
"I'm not scared," she whispered. Her blue eyes sparkled, looking at him with sympathy. "It's so peaceful," she murmured.  
  
His arms tightened around her, and he realized he was crying. She smiled gently at him, still with sympathy yet now mixed with love. "Remember." Then, her hand fell to her side, and the blue eyes closed.  
  
In his tears, he tripped over another rock, landing hard on his right shoulder. The thorns of the single rose in his hand drew blood. Slowly, he rose to his feet, trying to retain the memory.  
  
"Who is she?"  
  
No one answered. The gentle night breeze caused the long grass to sway, reminding him of a willow. There had been a willow in the blonde woman's garden. Something important had happened there. He just couldn't remember.  
  
"Remember," a voice whispered.  
  
"I'm trying!" he cried.  
  
The cry seemed hollow to his own ears. He looked down at the battered rose. Surprised, he saw that it was still pretty much intact. That was good, he decided.  
  
He was nearer, and he quickened his pace, watching out for more chunks and marble and steel. "Not much longer," he chanted to himself. "No much longer."  
  
Then he was there. It was there right before him so suddenly he was frightened for a moment. Slowly, cautiously, he crept to the spot and knelt.  
  
It had been a tombstone, he remembered. A rather simple because there had been too much confusion and chaos to erect one suitable for her station. However, only the stone base remained, the rest and the name gone with the passage of war and time.  
  
But he knew the name. That was why he was here. She was the reason why he was here in this place at night.  
  
He gently placed the rose on the stone base. Immediately he buried his face in his hands, trying to hide his sobs from the night. She was there, underneath this ground, his mind screamed.  
  
"Remember," a voice whispered.  
  
"Allura!" he cried. "Allura!"  
  
The name opened the floodgates of memory. She was gone like everything else he loved. The team, the castle, the people, the planet, everything had been destroyed by one man's greed and hatred.  
  
"Damn you, Lotor," he said, his voice cold with malice. "Damn you to hell."  
  
The tears were gone, replaced by a heavy sense of guilt. He should be with her now, he thought. It had been his duty to protect her, and he had failed. They all had failed, but the chief blame lay with him.  
  
"I'm sorry," he whispered, his fingers caressing the stone base. "It should have been me instead of you."  
  
"I'm not scared. It's so peaceful. Remember."  
  
Now he remembered what he had said to her. "Always." Then he had laid her down on the ground and returned to the desperate battle that had claimed her.  
  
He hadn't been allowed at the burial, his injuries too serious for that kind of journey. Arus had lasted for three more days, before falling to the Doom Empire. Lotor had won, Keith thought ironically.  
  
"The bastard, in the end, had won," he mumbled.  
  
A hand touched Keith on the shoulder. "He didn't enjoy too long, Keith," the tall stranger said.  
  
"I know you," Keith whispered, trying to recall a happier version of the stranger's half-grin.  
  
"Yeah, you sure do. It's Lance, Keith."  
  
Keith stared openly, trying to match the name with his past. The stranger, Lance, just smiled in sympathy. So much like Allura's smile, Keith thought absently.  
  
"Lance?"  
  
The smile grew bigger, as the stranger put an arm around Keith's shoulder. "It's okay, pal. But we'd better head in."  
  
Keith paused, looking over his shoulder at the rose. "I remembered, Allura."  
  
Lance's face tightened before softly saying, "We all do." 


End file.
